The Boat
1921 · 26m · USA
Directed by Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic
Buster Keaton builds a boat called the Damfino inside his house, only to destroy his home pulling it out. He then takes his wife and two sons on a disastrous maiden voyage filled with escalating mishaps, from drilling holes in the hull to a failed SOS call, culminating in a shipwreck.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Keaton's incompetence genuinely endangers his family and the whole thing ends in cynical shipwreck — the rare Keaton with a bitter aftertaste. That's the one I actually want.
Keaton's Damfino voyage carries a bleaker undertow than most of his shorts, where slapstick edges into existential dread; the title's pun is the joke's tombstone. One of his most underrated achievements.
The 'Damfino' boat literally tears Keaton's house apart on launch and then sinks under him with his family aboard — the dark streak undercuts the slapstick in a way most Keaton shorts don't risk. The shipwreck is built practical.
Reviews
This must be the most elaborate two-reeler ever seen, with impressive special effects and incredible boat sets which allow for some amazing and very funny gags.
One of Keaton's funniest, certainly his darkest, and something of an anomaly in his filmography — he causes more harm than good to his family and with their lives at stake, the laughs are suddenly undercut with a real element of bitter cynicism.